judgement, as well as the fineft invention, by finding out a method to fupply this natural defect in his fubject. Accordingly he leaves the Adverfary of mankind, in the laft view which he gives of him, under the loweft ftate of mortification and difappointment. We fee him chewing afhes, groveling in the duft, and loaden with fupernumerary pains and torments. On the contrary, our two firft parents are comforted by dreams and vifions, cheered with promises of salvation, and, in a manner, raifed to a greater happiness, than that which they had forfeited: In fhort, Satan is represented miferable in the height of his triumphs, and Adam triumphant in the height of mifery. Milton's Poem ends very nobly. The laft fpeeches of Adam and the Archangel are full of moral and instructive fentiments. The fleep that fell upon Eve, and the effects it had in quieting the diforders of her mind, produce the fame kind of confolation in the reader; who cannot perufe the laft beautiful fpeech, which is afcribed to the mother of mankind, without a fecret pleasure and fatisfaction. The following lines, which conclude the Poem, rife in a moft glorious blaze of poetical images and expreffions. Heliodorus in his Ethiopicks acquaints us, that the motion of the gods differs from that of mortals; as the former do not stir their feet, or proceed ftep by ftep, but flide over the furface of the earth by an uniform fwimming of the whole body. The reader may obferve with how poetical a defcription Milton has attributed the fame kind of motion to the Angels who were to take poffeffion of Paradife: "So fpake our mother Eve; and Adam heard "Well pleas'd, but anfwer'd not; for now too night "The Archangel ftood; and, from the other hill "To their fix'd station, all in bright array "The Cherubim defcended; on the ground Gliding meteorous, as evening-mift "Risen from a river o'er the marish glides, "And gathers ground fast at the labourer's heel The author helped his invention in the following paffage, by reflecting on the behaviour of the Angel, who, in Holy Writ, has the conduct of Lot and his family. The circumstances drawn from that relation are very gracefully made ufe of on this occasion: "In either hand the haftening Angel caught "Our lingering parents, and to the eaftern gate The fcene which our firft parents are furprised with, upon their looking back on Paradife, wonderfully ftrikes the reader's imagination; as nothing can be more natural than the tears they fhed on that occafion : "They, looking back, all the eaftern fide beheld "Of Paradise, so late their happy feat, "Wav'd over by that flaming brand; the gate "Some natural tears they dropt, but wip'd them foon If I might prefume to offer at the fmalleft alteration in this divine work, i fhould think the Poem would end better with the paffage here quoted, than with the two verfes which follow: They, hand in hand, with wandering steps and flow, "Through Eden took their folitary way." These two verses, though they have their beauty, fall very much below the foregoing paffage, and renew in the mind of the reader that anguifh which was pretty well laid by that confideration; "The world was all before them where to choose "Their place of rett, and Providence their guide." The number of books in Paradife Loft is equal to thofe of the Eneid. Our author in his first edition had divided his Poem into ten books, but afterwards broke the feventh, and the eleventh, each of them into two different books, by the help of fome fmall additions. This fecond divifion was made with great judgement, as any one may fee who will be at the pains of examining it. It was not done for the fake of fuch a chimerical beauty as that of refembling Virgil in this particular, but for the more juft and regular difpofition of this great work. 1 I Should think the Poem would end better &e.} The criticks are divided on this point. See the Notes on B. xii. 648. TODD. Those who have read Boffu, and many of the criticks who have written fince his time, will not pardon me if I do not find out the particular moral which is inculcated in Paradife Loft. Though I can by no means think with the laft mentioned French author, that an epick writer first of all pitches upon a certain moral, as the ground-work and foundation of his poem, and afterwards finds out a story to it: I am, however, of opinion, that no juft heroick poem ever was or can be made, from whence one great moral may not be deduced. That, which reigns in Milton, is the most univerfal and moft useful that can be imagined: It is in fhort this, That obedience to the Will of God makes men happy, and that difobedience makes them miferable. This is vifibly the moral of the principal fable, which turns upon Adam and Eve, who continued in Paradife, while they kept the command that was given them, and were driven out of it as foon as they had tranfgreffed. This is likewife the moral of the principal epifode, which fhows us how an innumerable multitude of Angels fell from their state of blifs, and were caft into Hell upon their difobedience. Befides this great moral, which may be looked upon as the foul of the fable, there are an infinity of under morals which are to be drawn from the feveral parts of the Poem; and which makes this work more ufeful, and inftructive, than any other poem in any language. Those who have criticifed on the Odyffey, the Iliad, and Eneid, have taken a great deal of pains to fix the number of months and days contained in the action of each of those poems. If any one thinks it worth his while to examine this particular in Milton, he will find that from Adam's firft appearance in the fourth book, to his expulfion from Paradife in the twelfth, the author reckons ten days. As for that part of the action which is defcribed in the three firft books, as it does not pafs within the regions of nature, I have before obferved that it is not fubject to any calculations of time. I have now finished my obfervations on a work, which does an honour to the English nation. I have taken a general view of it under thefe four heads, the FABLE, the CHARACTERS, the SEN n m he will find &c.] See the minute account of the action, in a preceding Note, pp. 9, 10, 11. TODD. the fable, the characters, the fentiments, and the LANGUAGE.] There is yet a beauty in Milton's LANGUAGE, of which little notice has been taken by Mr. Addifon; and of which (although thefe ornaments are more frequent in his earlier poems) there are many examples in the Paradife Loft: I mean his compound epithets; fuch as "fky-tinctur'd grain,"-" fable-vefted Night," "heaven-warning champions,"-" night-warbling bird,”— "love-labour'd fong, &c." See many more in Peck's Memoirs of Milton, 1740, pp. 117, &c. Mr. Addifon cites only "helldoom'd." It may not be improper to add a few remarks refpećting thefe combinations of words. They abound in our elder poetry, and are often remarkably fignificant and happy. Spenfer and Shakfpeare afford many beautiful inftances. In Sylvefter's Du Bartas, there is fcarcely a page in which a compound epithet may not be found, Dr. Warton has cenfured this immoderate ufe of them in Sylvefter. Yet there are many epithets of great merit in this voluminous author; and with which Milton appears to have been pleased; fuch as "love-darting eyn,"-" flowerymantled earth,”—“ Smooth-fliding floods, &c." Browne, in his |